Posted November 04, 2025in Stray Thoughts
As Iowans headed to the polls this week to elect local school board members, they faced an issue beyond the usual ones of taxes, student achievement, teacher pay, curriculum and enrollment. This year, school board and administrators’ performance and trustworthiness were front and center in some school districts. And on
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Posted October 28, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Not surprisingly these days, free speech on college campuses is back in the headlines. That makes it worthwhile to highlight the seven-page policy the Iowa Board of Regents wrote to proclaim how it values and protects freedom of expression at the three state universities. Before getting to that, it is
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Posted October 13, 2025in Stray Thoughts
The nation’s founders got right to the point when they laid out how to treat the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, the press and the rights of people to assemble and to petition the government. They used only 45 words, without asterisks. Their simple words should lead to simple
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Posted October 07, 2025in Stray Thoughts
The lesson of the hot stove emerged again last week. That is the lesson toddlers learn early and smart ones retain for a lifetime. Touch something hot and you know not to touch it again. Educator Ian Roberts delivered a new rendition of the lesson over the past fortnight. Time
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Posted September 30, 2025in Stray Thoughts
I spoke to two groups in recent weeks, and people at both gatherings wanted to know about the work of the organization I lead, the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. If I had known then what I know now, I could have been more effective. I could have advised them
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Posted September 09, 2025in Stray Thoughts
During decades as a journalist, I had countless conversations with interesting people — future presidents, wannabe leaders, governors, business executives, religious thinkers, crooks, and ordinary folks who made a difference in their own corner of the world. With soldiers headed to our cities and chaos in our nation, now is
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Posted September 02, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Even the best salesman would struggle explaining away the reasons for the latest contradiction from the president of the United States. He believes crime in Washington, D.C., is so out of control that 2,000 National Guard soldiers and federal agents need to keep residents and visitors safe. His order came
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Posted August 27, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Government regulates business to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. That is the theory behind enacting and enforcing regulations, and it is a commendable mission. But, too often the regulators seemingly do not want the people they are supposed to protect to know which businesses fall short
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Posted August 11, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Lyman Dillon resides in the dusty recesses of Iowa history for his role in 1839 in one of Iowa’s earliest infrastructure projects. Dillon’s work also figures indirectly in a modern-day lesson on how NOT to run a government. This how-not-to-do-it tutorial occurred last week during a Jones County Board of
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Posted August 05, 2025in Stray Thoughts
One of the frustrations of being a **former** newspaper editor is no longer having a few dozen reporters to pursue answers to questions going unasked and unanswered each day.Two of my go-to questions were “why” and “why not.” And my favorite open-ended query to a newsmaker was “explain this to
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